Trainer profiles
Shane Cook
Shane has worked in the health and fitness industry since finishing his football career with Swindon Town FC in 1995. During his time with Swindon he played in the youth and reserve teams and made a handful of appearances in the 1st team squad when they were in the Premier League. He enjoyed experiencing the coaching side of football during his time at Swindon and became very interested in the fitness and psychological aspects of elite sport.
When he finished his playing career he decided to enrol on the Premier Training and Development Master Diploma for Personal Training and Sports Therapy. Once qualified, he began working in one of Bristol’s leading health and fitness clubs where he quickly progressed to gym manager.
As his profile in this environment developed many club members expressed an interest in personal training. Shane therefore developed a one-to-one Personal Training service which ultimately led to the opening of Active8 Health & Fitness Ltd, Bristol’s most exclusive Personal Training practice.
Since 1995 he has helped many clients achieve their health and fitness goals, whilst maintaining his interest in football by working with professional clubs in pre-season to prepare and condition their players.
Damion Rice
Damion has worked as a Personal Trainer in Bristol since 2002 and joined Shane Cook at Active8 in the summer of 2005.
He graduated from Staffordshire University with an Honours degree in Sport & Recreation in 1994 before attending Loughborough University where he gained an MSc in Sports Science. Damion’s dissertation analysed methods of increasing people’s level of physical activity.
Damion came to Bristol in 1995 where he initially worked in the Viva! (now Livingwell) health club in Redland before moving to the Sun Life Sports Facility as Assistant Manager. He joined the team of personal trainers at Personal Space in Bristol in 2002.
His clients have included several ante/post-natal women and Damion leads outdoor exercise sessions for post-natal groups.
He has helped clients recover from a range of conditions including whiplash injuries, lower back pain, and tendonitis whilst also improving the health of clients with asthma, high blood pressure and obesity.
Damion spends most of his spare time training for triathlons and local half-marathons. He completed the 2007 Bath half-marathon with a personal best time of 1hr 40mins.
Ash Bennett
Ash began his career in the fitness industry in Hereford where he worked as a fitness instructor at Sixth Sense Fitness. He moved to Bristol in 2003, working firstly at Redwood Lodge as a Personal Trainer before moving onto the Esporta club where he is currently the Studio Co-ordinator. As part of this role Ash leads a variety of exercise classes including Body Combat, Spin Cycling, Body Pump, Boxercise, and Aerobics.Ash joined the team of Personal Trainers at Active8 in 2005 and enjoys bringing his expertise from group exercise sessions into the one-to-one training environment.
Ash has attained Yellow Belt status at Kick-Boxing and has completed three sprint triathlons this year – achieving a top 50 position in each. He optimistically hopes he could compete in the Triathlon at the 2012 Olympics! Aside from exercising Ash is a keen guitarist and has played many local venues with his band - Marshalsea.